Semaglutide 2.4 mg is registered in Singapore as an injection licensed for weight management, and has been since 2023. Since August 2025 its Singapore label has carried a second, separate indication: reducing the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults who already have cardiovascular disease alongside obesity or overweight. It is prescription-only. This article sets out what the registered label says, what the trials behind it measured, and where the label's own numbers differ from ours.
Availability in Singapore. This medicine is registered with Singapore's Health Sciences Authority, and its registered indication includes weight management. Which medicine suits a particular person, if any does, is decided by the doctor who assesses them — we do not promote a named product.
What is registered here
Ten separate products, one for each step of the dose. They appear on Singapore's register of therapeutic products classified Prescription Only, approved on 22 February 2023 and 24 March 2023 (HSA register). A registration is granted per presentation, which is why one medicine occupies ten lines.
Prescription Only is a legal classification, not a formality. MOH has stated in Parliament that GLP-1 medicines here may be dispensed only by a registered doctor or a licensed retail pharmacy, against a valid prescription (MOH 2024). Whether this medicine is appropriate for any one person is a decision made by a doctor who has assessed them.
The two indications, from the label itself
Section 4.1 of the Singapore product information carries two things, and most coverage of this medicine knows about one of them.
The weight-management indication runs as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, in adults with an initial BMI of 30 kg/m² or above, or 27 to under 30 in the presence of at least one weight-related comorbidity — the label names dysglycaemia, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, obstructive sleep apnoea and cardiovascular disease as examples. There is also an adolescent indication from age 12 in obesity with body weight above 60 kg (NDF).
The cardiovascular risk-reduction indication stands on its own: reducing the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with established cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight. HSA approved it here on 22 August 2025 (HSA bulletin).
Two words in that first indication carry more weight than they look: adjunct to. Every trial behind this label studied the medicine alongside diet and activity, and the label licenses it that way. Nothing here was ever tested as the whole intervention.
The label's BMI numbers, and ours
They are different numbers, and they are answering different questions.
The label's floor is a BMI of 30, or 27 to under 30 with a weight-related comorbidity. Those are the international cut-offs, and they have not been adjusted for Asian bodies.
Our criteria are a BMI of 25 and above alongside a related health condition. If you are already taking a GLP-1 medication, that range may not apply to you.
The label decides what a specific product is licensed for. Our criteria decide who this service is set up to have a conversation with, and meeting them is not the same as being suitable for treatment — that is a clinical judgement made at a consultation. Neither number changes what the other says. We set the whole picture out, including Singapore's own national classification and MOH's primary-care protocol, in am I eligible.
What the trials showed
STEP 1 is the trial the weight-management indication rests on. In 1,961 adults with overweight or obesity and without diabetes, mean weight change at 68 weeks was −14.9% with once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg compared with −2.4% with placebo. Half the treated group — 50.5%, against 4.9% on placebo — lost at least 15% of body weight (Wilding 2021).
Those are averages across a studied population, measured in a trial that also supplied lifestyle support to both arms. Individual results vary and are not guaranteed.
What the cardiovascular indication is, and what it is not
SELECT enrolled 17,604 patients who already had cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity, and did not have diabetes. Over a mean follow-up of about 40 months, a primary endpoint event — cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack or non-fatal stroke — occurred in 6.5% of the semaglutide group and 8.0% of the placebo group, a hazard ratio of 0.80 (Lincoff 2023). Individual results vary and are not guaranteed.
That is the evidence behind the second indication, and its boundaries are part of the finding. It was measured in people with established cardiovascular disease. It is a risk-reduction claim, not a treatment claim, and it says nothing about anyone outside that population.
What the label does not say
It does not say this medicine treats sleep apnoea, high blood pressure, fatty liver or dyslipidaemia.
Those conditions appear in the weight-management indication as examples of a comorbidity that can qualify an overweight person for treatment of their weight. That describes who may be treated, not what is being treated — and the distinction is the label's own, not a piece of caution we have added. GetLean is a weight-management service. A condition someone already has stays with the doctor already managing it.
The question the label does not answer
How much of what comes off is fat.
A registered indication is written in kilograms and BMI points, because that is what the trials measured. It is silent on composition, and composition is what a person is left holding at the end. Rapid loss without enough protein and without resistance training takes lean tissue with it — which is the argument this clinic is built around and is covered in how much muscle you lose on GLP-1 medication.
At GetLean, our philosophy is that the medication is the catalyst and what you keep is the result. Which medicine, if any, is right for someone is decided at the consultation.
Common questions
Is the semaglutide injection available in Singapore?
It is registered here. Ten products, one per dose step, appear on Singapore's register of therapeutic products, all classified Prescription Only, approved in February and March 2023 (HSA register). Registered means a doctor may prescribe it where they judge it appropriate; it does not mean anyone can obtain it without an assessment.
What is it registered to be used for in Singapore?
Two things. Weight management in adults with a BMI of 30 or above, or 27 to under 30 with at least one weight-related comorbidity; and, separately, reducing the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults who have established cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight (NDF).
Does the label's BMI of 27 mean GetLean's threshold is 27?
No. They are different numbers answering different questions. The registered label sets the floor for that product's weight-management indication. Our criteria are a BMI of 25 and above alongside a related health condition. If you are already taking a GLP-1 medication, that range may not apply to you. They decide who we can start a conversation with rather than who gets a prescription.
How much weight did people lose in the trials?
In STEP 1, mean weight change at 68 weeks was −14.9% with semaglutide 2.4 mg compared with −2.4% with placebo, across 1,961 adults (Wilding 2021). That is a trial average in a studied population. Individual results vary and are not guaranteed.
Does it treat sleep apnoea or high blood pressure?
No. Those conditions appear in the registered indication as examples of a weight-related comorbidity that can qualify someone for weight management. That describes who may be treated for weight, not what is being treated, and it is a distinction the label itself draws.